The optimist in David O. Friedrichs wants to believe the trial of Commissioner A.J. Munchak and former Commissioner Robert C. Cordaro - regardless of what a federal jury decides in terms of their guilt or innocence - will lead to fundamental changes in the way Lackawanna County government does business.

He understands the history and tradition of public corruption in Northeast Pennsylvania suggest a different outcome.

"Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get the sustained interest and the political will to really follow through with the kinds of transformative policies you need," said Mr. Friedrichs, a University of Scranton professor and recognized expert on white-collar crime.

"On the historical basis, it's not easy to be truly optimistic."

Jurors are expected to begin their deliberations as the trial of Mr. Munchak and Mr. Cordaro enters its third week today in U.S. District Court. The jury is scheduled to reconvene at 9:30 a.m.

The defendants are accused of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks, bribes and unreported cash campaign contributions from county vendors while serving as the majority commissioners from 2004 to 2008. Mr. Cordaro faces 39 counts; Mr. Munchak faces 25.

They are the latest in a long line of public officials from Lackawanna County - from high-level politicians at the peak of their careers to lesser-known municipal functionaries - who have been caught up in corruption scandals in just the past two decades.

To anyone who is old enough and possesses even a passing interest in government, some of the names are instantly recognizable: Joseph M. McDade, Ernie Preate Jr., Frank Eagen, Frank Serafini.

More could be coming. A federal grand jury is investigating former Sen. Robert Mellow for extortion, money laundering, fraud and related offenses, according to federal court documents. An apparently unrelated federal investigation is under way into possible misuse of funds at Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit.

Although Mr. Friedrichs and others say cases like that of Mr. Munchak and Mr. Cordaro bring the pervasiveness of public corruption into sharp focus in the short term, translating the public's immediate outrage and sense of betrayal into long-term reform is more problematic.

"The public needs to be aware that we need to have sustained action by citizens because the bad guys are counting on people losing interest," Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, said. "If people lose interest, the bad guys win."

Mr. Friedrichs, author of "Trusted Criminals: White Collar Crime in Contemporary Society," the nation's mostly widely adopted textbook on white-collar crime, said shifts in public attitudes toward corruption - whether it happens in a government office or a corporate boardroom - are difficult to measure.

But he does see a more sophisticated understanding of the issue, one that recognizes not only individual misdeeds but also the factors "that contribute to something of this nature occurring in the way it does occur." While there is a tendency to focus on the motivation for a crime, he said, the other part of the equation is opportunity.

The bottom-line question arising from Mr. Munchak and Mr. Cordaro's trial, he said, is whether it will generate enough "reasonably broad public indignation so that there is a critical mass of concern and anger that will create the political pressure to make the changes necessary to minimize the chances that you will have a repetition."

From monitoring media accounts of the trial and sitting through part of the testimony, Mr. Friedrichs said it is apparent Lackawanna County needs a system with "clear oversight and transparency with regard to how contracts are awarded," with checks and balances and "real, hands-on auditing."

"What I'm getting at is if you have a political environment and a political system that is structured in a way that generates huge opportunities for this type of activity, then it is very predictable that you will have it," he said. "It will continue."

Thomas J. Baldino, Ph.D., a Wilkes University political science professor, said he believes on one hand that people in Northeast Pennsylvania are tiring of what appears to be incessant instances of public corruption. They want and expect more of their public officials, he said.

That became apparent last fall when voters in Luzerne County, largely in response to the scandals there, approved a home rule charter scrapping the traditional three-commissioner form of county government in favor of a county council with an appointed executive, he said.

On the other hand, Dr. Baldino continues to see government officials act in ways that, while not necessarily illegal or corrupt, make him wonder if they even know how to do things differently.

"The question is why - why does this continue? There is a sense the public is ready for a change, but the people who remain in positions still quite haven't gotten the message that it is time to change their behavior or that it is time to get with a new way of thinking," he said.

Dr. Baldino said he will be disappointed if the trial of Mr. Munchak and Mr. Cordaro, no matter what its outcome is, does not spur a re-examination of home rule in Lackawanna County and possible movement away from the three-commissioner structure that consolidates executive and legislative authority in a single body.

"You need a more sophisticated form of government, certainly something that is responsive to the public will," he said.

Common Cause's Mr. Kauffman said Pennsylvania is making progress in turning around its storied culture of government corruption, but the progress is not nearly fast enough to catch up with all that needs to be done to create a "culture of integrity."

"Two things go hand in hand. You need political systems that work in the public interest, and you have to elect people and appoint people to offices who have the personal integrity to make those systems work effectively," Mr. Kauffman said. "It's both - systems and people."

Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com

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